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Comment by Synaesthesia | Hacker News Reader

Let’s fix our own planet first before fixing another one ha

This is a silly argument. We can do more than one thing at a time.

We are certainly very good at rearranging multiple deck chairs on the Titanic at once. Our ability to grapple with any serious problem affecting the entire human system appears to be low at present.

Not so silly. Resources are limited

Are you in charge of all the resources? If not, it's a silly argument. People will do whatever they want to do. You might as well propose herding cats.

Maybe is silly for you.

"If you are not (put some impossible random requisite here) then you are wrong"

Well... As other billions of people, I don't need to be "in charge of all the resources in the planet" or "to be Santa Claus or Jesus" to talk about the problems of humankind (or to be aware that neglecting earth conservation, to put five machines more or less in Mars none less, is a terribly stupid idea). If you equal asking more resources for nature conservation with proposing herding cats, then your logic has some serious loopholes.

Those loopholes are features, not bugs. They allow the mind to close the door to consideration of reflexive problems. Those with a feedback loop back to the self. It really simplifies existence! xD

I think your buffer has overflowed. If living sustainably within limited resources were merely a "thing" to take care of one afternoon, or even in 1000 afternoons, then we probably would have done it by now.

Consider that the need for this "new thing" (Martian living) may have only arisen from the failure to solve the first thing.

Well we haven’t even taken a human to Mars, do you realise how much resources it will take to just achieve that, and for what purpose? It’s a vanity project.

It's a long term survivability project. Living on one planet is inherently dangerous. And long-term - terminal. You're one step away from some relativistic rock hitting out planet and sterilizing it.

Let's learn how to fix a planet with one we don't really care if we mess up.

Yes, one we’ve never even visited! Makes sense

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